Walter Veltroni resigned on Tuesday as leader of Italy’s opposition Democrats after a series of corruption scandals and electoral defeats that have strengthened the ruling centre-right coalition led by Silvio Berlusconi. the prime minister.
“For many I am a problem and I am ready to leave for the good of the party,” Mr Veltroni said after results earlier on Tuesday confirmed that the incumbent Democratic governor of Sardinia and its council had been ousted in weekend elections by Mr Berlusconi’s People of Liberty coalition.

Mr Veltroni’s sudden departure after 16 months as party leader confirms the absolute disarray of the Italian opposition and its inability to find a coherent response to the economic crisis and Mr Berlusconi’s comfortable majority in parliament.

The Democratic party, born last October of a merger of former communists like Mr Veltroni and progressive Catholics, faces the prospect of fighting European parliamentary elections in May without a leader.

Party leaders, including deputy head Dario Franceschini, are set to meet in Rome on Wednesday to consider next moves. Possibilities include a caretaker leader or a collective leadership until the party can organise primaries and a general assembly.

The defeat in Sardinia, seen as a litmus test ahead of the European elections, follows a series of corruption scandals and judicial investigations of local but prominent Democratic party officials across Italy, including cases in Naples and the region of Abruzzo.

Mr Veltroni, a former two-time mayor of Rome, made a fateful decision to lead the Democratic party in last April’s general elections without its traditional allies on the radical left, including Communists, Greens and Socialists. Mr Veltroni, 53, wanted to distance himself from the former centre-left government led by Romano Prodi which had been crippled by infighting, but his choice weakened the Italian left and alienated many traditional supporters.

After its comprehensive defeat, the Democrats went on to lose regional elections in Sicily and Abruzzo, then finally Sardinia.

As mayor of Rome, Mr Veltroni had evolved from a young Communist party activist in the 1970s into an author, intellectual patron of the arts but notably a pragmatist who wanted non-ideological reform of the left.

But with the economic downturn starting to bite – Italy went into recession last year ahead of its EU peers – his assurances over lost jobs and the perceived dangers of protectionism failed to convince many voters who swung, especially in the north, to the far right. His attempt to hitch his wagon to Barack Obama with the campaign slogan “Yes we can” did not catch on.

His greatest humiliation was seeing Rome, traditionally a city of the centre-left, elect its first right-wing mayor, Giovanni Alemanno, since the second world war.

Being nearly 20 years younger than Mr Berlusconi, who was fighting his fifth election campaign, Mr Veltroni sought to portray himself as the new man. In reality he had been in politics twice as long as his billionaire rival and in his suit and round glasses looked more old fashioned.

Given the fractious nature of the Democratic party, which has failed to establish a new identity, Mr Veltroni leaves no obvious successor. Names mentioned include Matteo Renzi, a young politician from Florence, which is also troubled by centre-left scandals, and Pier Luigi Bersani, former minister of economic development.